Pandemics, Delays, and Pure Data: on ‘afterlives’ (2020), for Flute and Live Electronics and Visuals

The essay addresses creative and technical aspects of the piece ‘afterlives’ (2020), for flute and live electronics and visuals. Composed and premiered in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the composition employs audiovisual processes based on different audiovisual techniques: phase-vocoders, buffer-based granulations, Ambisonics spatialization, and variable delay of video streams. The resulting sounds and images allude to typical situations of social interaction via video conferencing applications. ‘Afterlives’ relies on an interplay between current, almost-current, and past moments of the audiovisual streams, which dephase the performer’s images and sounds. I have avoided, in text, delving deeper into the Pure Data abstractions and or into the musical analysis of my composition. The main purpose of the text is rather to present compositional/technical elements of ‘afterlives’ and discuss how they enable new experiences of time.

A Reconstruction of Late Renaissance Music in Nono's Prometeo

This paper attempts to stress that the composer Luigi Nono never overlooked early music, particularly Renaissance music, and his avant-garde works were created on the basis of late Renaissance and early Baroque music. Furthermore, this paper has tried to shed light on the relationship between music and space, which was an essential parameter of musical composition in the twentieth century as well as in the Renaissance. The sound modulated by live electronics transports the listener into synesthetic and perceptive listening and sonic space. As a result, it is demonstrated that Nono indicated the power and fascination of the voice, the polychoral structure, and the influence of the interaction between sound and space in his Prometeo.

Designing Musical Games for Electroacoustic Improvisation

This paper describes the background and motivations behind the author’s electroacoustic game-pieces Pathfinder (2016) and ICARUS (2019), designed specifically for his performance practice with an augmented drum kit. The use of game structures in music is outlined, while musical expression in the context of commercial musical games using conventional game controllers is discussed. Notions such as agility, agency and authorship in music composition and improvisation are in parallel with game design and play, where players are asked to develop skills through affordances within a digital game-space. It is argued that the recent democratisation of game engines opens a wide range of expressive opportunities for real-time game-based improvisation and performance. Some of the design decisions and performance strategies for the two instrument-controlled games are presented to illustrate the discussion; this is done in terms of game design, physical control through the augmented instrument, live electronics and overall artistic goals of the pieces. Finally, future directions for instrument-controlled electroacoustic game-pieces are suggested.

Finding art and the art of finding: O que vos nunca cuidei a dizer

The article discusses the making of O que vos nunca cuidei a dizer, a gallery work for interactive garment, transducer-based interface and live electronics. A technical description of the work is framed by an account of the creative process with reference to media archaeological methodology and by a discussion of the role of composed instruments in the new paradigms of artistic research.

‘IT IS IMPORTANT ARTISTS REACT TO THE WORLD IN WHICH WE ALL LIVE’: AN INTERVIEW WITH PHILIPPE MANOURY ON LAB.ORATORIUM

Lab.Oratorium (2019) is the concluding part of Philippe Manoury's Köln Trilogy. It follows In situ (2013) and Ring (2016) in exploring the spoken voice as a musical element, the wider possibilities of the orchestra, and the use of sound spatialization and live electronics. Lab.Oratorium is also a work deeply rooted in the present. In this interview, Philippe Manoury discusses the political and poetic significance of this work, conceived as an artistic response to Europe's responsibility in the tragic situation of migrants around the Mediterranean. He also develops his thoughts on musical form, spatialization and creative process in music.